The gender gap in urban toponymy: a descriptive review of the academic literature

Doğuş Düzgün, Unesco Chair in Inclusive toponymy, University of Geneva,

With special thanks to Seyfullah Yürük and Frédéric Giraut

 

INTRODUCTION

Although critical toponymy studies have expanded significantly in recent decades, discussions on gender in place names have remained relatively limited. However, recent years have witnessed a notable shift, with a growing body of research addressing gender in place-naming processes. Despite this progress, several topics within this sub-field remain underexplored. This bibliography aims to highlight key aspects of research on gender in place names, serving both as a foundation for further discussion and a resource for future critical toponymy studies focused on gender. The scope is primarily limited to English-language research. Additionally, only studies that indicate the gender issue in the title or abstract, or that dedicate at least one chapter to this topic, are included.

 

CASES BY REGION

CONTINENT	SUB-CONTINENT	N⁰ OF STUDIES
AFRICA	Northern Africa	–
	Sub-Saharan Africa – (Muhonja, 2016): Nairobi, Kenya – (Forrest, 2018): Durban, South Africa. – (Mamvura, Muwati, and Mutasa, 2018): Harare, Zimbabwe. – (Gundani, 2019): Mbare Township in Zimbabwe. – (Bigon and Zuvalinyenga, 2021): Sub-Saharan Africa. – (Zuvalinyenga and Bigon, 2021): Sub-Saharan Africa; Bindura, Zimbabwe. – (Mamvura, 2022): Zimbabwe. – (Makweya et al., 2024): South Africa	8
	Total	8
AMERICAS	Latin America and the Caribbean	–
	Northern America – (Herman, 1999): Hawaiian Islands/US. – (Rose-Redwood, 2008): Manhattan’s Upper West and Harlem in New York City. – (Tretter, 2011): The US. – (Smith, Woodrow, and Vodden, 2016): Change Islands, Newfoundland, Canada. – (Motschenbacher, 2020): Wilton Drive Street, Florida, US. – (Bancilhon et.al., 2021): Paris, Vienna, London and New York. – (Beck, 2021): North America. – (Calamita and Trapè, 2021): The University of Virginia, US and an upper-secondary school in Pavia, Italy.	8
	Total	8
ASIA	Central Asia	–
	Eastern Asia	–
	South-eastern Asia	–
	Southern Asia	–
	Western Asia – (Riazi, 2019): Tehran, Iran.	1
	Total	1
EUROPE	Eastern Europe – (Nazarska, 2013): Bulgaria. – (Nada, 2014) Belgrade, Serbia – (Neaga, 2014): University Square, Bucharest, Romania. – (Niculescu-Mizil, 2014): Bucharest, Romania. – (Walkowiak, 2018): 12 Polish cities. – (Rusu, 2019): Romania. – (Gałkowski, 2020): Selected Polish and Italian towns and cities. – (Gnatiuk and Glybovets, 2020): 41 largest cities of Ukraine. – (Felecan and Felecan, 2021): 15 urban areas of different sizes – (Rusu, 2022): Sibiu, Romania. – (Walkowiak and Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska, 2023): 12 biggest cities of Poland. – (Górny, and Górna, 2024): Poland’s three largest cities: Warsaw, Kraków, and Łódź. – (Rusu, 2024): Romania.	13
	Northern Europe – (Nash, 1993): Ireland. – (Bancilhon et.al., 2021): Paris, Vienna, London and New York.	2
	Southern Europe – (Andrews, 2009): Tourist destination of Magaluf, Mallorca/Spain. – (Chabrera and Kent, 2009): Seaside resort town of Benicàssimin Valencia, Spain. – (Ferradás, 2018): Santiago de Compostela, Spain. – (Gałkowski, 2020): Selected Polish and Italian towns and cities. – (Calamita and Trapè, 2021): The University of Virginia, US and an upper-secondary school in Pavia, Italy. – (Gonzalez and Sebastian-Lopez, 2021): Zaragoza, Spain. – (Gutierrez-Mora and Oto-Peralias, 2022): Spain. – (Moretti, 2023): Italy’s regional capitals. – (Pecorelli, 2023): Milan, Italy.	9
	Western Europe – (Richard 2001) Marseille, France – (Drucker, 2016): Darmstadt University, Germany. – (Novas Ferradás, 2018): Santiago de Compostela, Spain – (Martínez-Ariño et al., 2019): France and Germany  – (Bancilhon et.al., 2021): Paris, Vienna, London and New York. – (Ouali, N et.al., 2021): Brussels, Belgium. – (Sawall and Alvanides, 2024): Frankfurt, Germany. – (Auvray, 2024): France	8
	Total	32
OCEANIA	Oceania – (Berg and Kearns, 1996): New Zealand.	1
	Total	1

 

 

 

INTERTWINING ISSUES

ISSUE	N⁰ OF STUDIES
COLONIALISM – (Muhonja, 2016) – (Nash, 1993) – (Berg and Kearns, 1996) – (Herman, 1999) – (Forrest, 2018) – (Mamvura, Muwati, and Mutasa, 2018) – (Beck, 2021) – (Bigon and Zuvalinyenga, 2021) – (Makweya et al., 2024)	9
NATIONALISM/RACISM – (Nash, 1993) – (Berg and Kearns, 1996) – (Rose-Redwood, 2008) – (Nada, 2014) – (Makweya et al., 2024)	5
EDUCATION – (Drucker, 2016) – (Calamita and Trapè, 2021) – (Gonzalez and Sebastian-Lopez, 2021)	3
URBAN MANAGEMENT – (Martínez-Ariño et al., 2019) – (Bigon and Zuvalinyenga, 2021) – (Zuvalinyenga and Bigon, 2021)	3
TOURISM – (Andrews, 2009)	1
LOCAL GEOGRAPHIC KNOWLEDGE – (Smith, Woodrow, and Vodden, 2016)	1
RELIGION – (Gundani, 2019)	1
SUSTAINABILITY – (Gonzalez and Sebastian-Lopez, 2021)	1

 

 

 

METHODS USED

METHOD	N⁰ OF STUDIES
TOPONYMIC DATA ANALYSIS – (Neaga, 2014) – (Niculescu-Mizil, 2014) – (Nada, 2014) – (Muhonja, 2016) – (Walkowiak, 2018) – (Rusu, 2019) – (Gałkowski, 2020) – (Gnatiuk and Glybovets, 2020) – (Bancilhon et.al., 2021) – (Ouali, N et.al., 2021) – (Felecan and Felecan, 2021) – (Gutierrez-Mora and Oto-Peralias, 2022) – (Rusu, 2022) – (Górny, and Górna, 2024) – (Rusu, 2024) – (Makweya et al., 2024) – (Auvray, 2024)	17
ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS – (Andrews, 2009) – (Smith, Woodrow, and Vodden, 2016) – (Motschenbacher, 2020) – (Gonzalez and Sebastian-Lopez, 2021)	4
INTERACTIVE TEACHING METHODS – (Drucker, 2016) – (Calamita and Trapè, 2021)	2
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS – (Berg and Kearns, 1996) – (Makweya et al., 2024) PUBLIC POLICIES ANALYSIS – (Martínez-Ariño et al., 2019)	3
CASE STUDY (qualitative approach) – (Richard 2001) – (Rose-Redwood, 2008) – (Nada, 2014) – (Novas Ferradás, 2018):	4

 

 

 

OBJECTS OF STUDY

OBJECT	N⁰ OF STUDIES
OFFICIAL PUBLIC PLACE NAMES – (Nash, 1993) – (Richard 2001) – (Rose-Redwood, 2008) – (Andrews, 2009) – (Nazarska, 2013) – (Neaga, 2014) – (Niculescu-Mizil, 2014) – (Nada, 2014) – (Muhonja, 2016) – (Novas Ferradás, 2018) – (Forrest, 2018) – (Mamvura, Muwati, and Mutasa, 2018) – (Walkowiak, 2018) – (Gundani, 2019) – (Riazi, 2019) – (Rusu, 2019) – (Martínez-Ariño et al., 2019) – (Gałkowski, 2020) – (Gnatiuk and Glybovets, 2020) – (Bancilhon et.al., 2021) – (Beck, 2021) – (Bigon and Zuvalinyenga, 2021) – (Felecan and Felecan, 2021) – (Gonzalez and Sebastian-Lopez, 2021) – (Ouali, N et.al., 2021) – (Zuvalinyenga and Bigon, 2021) – (Gutierrez-Mora and Oto-Peralias, 2022) – (Mamvura, 2022) – (Rusu, 2022) – (Moretti, 2023) – (Walkowiak and Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska, 2023) – (Makweya et al., 2024) – (Górny, and Górna, 2024) – (Rusu, 2024) – (Auvray, 2024)	35
BOTTOM-UP DISCOURSES AND PRACTICES – (Berg and Kearns, 1996) – (Rose-Redwood, 2008) – (Drucker, 2016) – (Smith, Woodrow, and Vodden, 2016) – (Beck, 2021) – (Calamita and Trapè, 2021) – (Walkowiak and Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska, 2023) – (Sawall and Alvanides, 2024)	8
PRIVATE PLACE NAMES – (Andrews, 2009) – (Chabrera and Kent, 2009) – (Motschenbacher, 2020)	3

 

 

 

TYPES OF TOPONYMS

TOPONYMY	N⁰ OF STUDIES
STREET NAMES – (Richard 2001) – (Rose-Redwood, 2008) – (Nazarska, 2013) – (Niculescu-Mizil, 2014) – (Nada, 2014) – (Muhonja, 2016) – (Forrest, 2018) – (Novas Ferradás, 2018) – (Mamvura, Muwati, and Mutasa, 2018) – (Walkowiak, 2018) – (Martínez-Ariño et al., 2019) – (Gundani, 2019) – (Gnatiuk and Glybovets, 2020) – (Bancilhon et.al., 2021) – (Bigon and Zuvalinyenga, 2021) – (Gonzalez and Sebastian-Lopez, 2021) – (Ouali, N et.al., 2021) – (Felecan and Felecan, 2021) – (Zuvalinyenga and Bigon, 2021) – (Gutierrez-Mora and Oto-Peralias, 2022) – (Rusu, 2022) – (Moretti, 2023) – (Walkowiak and Rutkiewicz-Hanczewska, 2023) – (Górny, and Górna, 2024) – (Rusu, 2024)	25
URBAN PLACE NAMES – (Neaga, 2014) – (Riazi, 2019) – (Gałkowski, 2020) – (Makweya et al., 2024)	4
NAMES OF LEISURE AND SHOPPING – (Andrews, 2009) – (Gundani, 2019) – (Motschenbacher, 2020)	3
PUBLIC FACILITIES (SCHOOL; SWIMMING POOLS) NAMES – (Rusu, 2019) – (Makweya et al., 2024) – (Auvray, 2024)	3
RESIDENTIAL PLACE NAMES – (Chabrera and Kent, 2009) – (Makweya et al., 2024) GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES – (Makweya et al., 2024)	2

 

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